Stronger Together
by Shlee Verde
Summary: Not a sequel to LWSTT - more of an alternative. Post Traitor. Pre-Destiny's Way exerpt at back of Traitor novel. Jacen/Tenel Ka. R&R please. :)
1. Chapter 1

Stronger Together  
  
By Shlee Verde  
  
Summary: This is NOT a sequel to "Love Would See Them Through". It is more of a continuation or an alternative. It takes place after the events of NJO: Traitor and before the events in the excerpt of Destiny's Way at the end of the novel. It will probably end up AU but that's just how these things go. And, of course, its Jacen/Tenel Ka.  
  
Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me. Too bad, so sad.  
  
Reviews: Yes, please. But no flames - college life gives me enough stress :)  
  
Achieve: If you really want to, but please ask first.  
  
And on with the story :)  
  
  
  
Stronger Together  
  
"Jacen Solo was surprised by life" -NJO: Traitor By Matthew Stover  
  
Part 1  
  
Jacen Solo was surprised by life.  
  
But he wasn't the only one.  
  
****  
  
The queen sat on her throne, listening to what she considered mindless dribble. "I must do this. I am Queen Mother now. It is my responsibility to deal with such matters of state." It was the litany Jedi Knight Tenel Ka Chume Ta'a Djo repeated to herself day by day. Not surprisingly, she wasn't any closer to actually believing it.  
  
But it kept her going. As being the Queen of Hapes kept her going. It gave her a reason to wake up in the morning, to get out of bed.  
  
It gave her a reason to live.  
  
Because Tenel Ka had no reason to live anymore.  
  
It was strange that two people she loved dearly had died within days of one another, yet only one of those deaths she could accept. She was saddened by her mother's death, of course, but she had grown to accept that she was gone from life and still with her in the Force. Besides, the people who killed her had been punished.  
  
Ta'a Chume was dead.  
  
Tenel Ka had signed the order herself.  
  
While she loved her grandmother, she could not live with what the old woman had done. It was Hapan law that she die. On Hapes, family meant nothing, where the law was concerned.  
  
It was the other death Tenel Ka could not live with.  
  
The death of her first and only love, the closest and most trusted friend she had ever known.  
  
The death of Jacen Solo.  
  
She stopped her musings there; it would take her to a place she did not like to go. A place filled with coldness and despair. She could not do this now, not with matters of state at hand.  
  
She sat up straight on her throne, prepared to deliver her ruling.  
  
Suddenly, the world before her faded out of focus and she was in a place she did not know.  
  
She saw the galaxy before her; it was tilting between darkness and light.  
  
Jacen was there, just in front of her. He did not see her. He stood transfixed staring at someone.  
  
Master Skywalker.  
  
Tenel Ka watched as Jacen's uncle threw him the lightsaber -  
  
and watched as he missed catching it completely. The galaxy began to tilt toward darkness.  
  
Without thinking Tenel Ka sprang forward and caught the saber in her right hand. She passed the weapon to Jacen.  
  
As their hands touched, a warm light filled her - a light that Tenel Ka had thought was gone forever.  
  
Jacen's light.  
  
The galaxy tilted back to the light. And Master Skywalker smiled.  
  
The light washed around Tenel Ka and Jacen. He smiled at her, the same half-smile that he had always flashed her. "Stronger together, Tenel Ka," he said repeating their dogma they had all had as Young Jedi Knights. "Stronger together."  
  
"Yes, Jacen, my friend," she heard herself say. "Stronger together."  
  
Then the vision faded.  
  
****  
  
Tenel Ka opened her eyes.  
  
"Erenda!" someone exclaimed.  
  
Murmuring filled the throne room as the young queen sat up.  
  
"My lady," one of her aides came forward. "You passed out, are you alright?"  
  
"Yes," she responded and stood up, about to retort that she had NOT passed out, when she realized something.  
  
The vision faded.  
  
Jacen's light had not.  
  
"Oh Force," she murmured.  
  
"Queen Mother?" the aide looked very concerned.  
  
"I am fine," Tenel Ka hastily summoned up some control. "I am afraid that we must continue this at another time. My apologies to all of you." She waved her hand, dismissing the politicians. Most nodded at her in understanding, those that did not she ignored.  
  
Tenel Ka grabbed an aide's arm. "Send a message to the communication center. Have them send a transmission to Mon Calamari, where the Solo family is staying - I do not know where that is, have them find out. I must speak to the Solos immediately."  
  
The aide looked confused, but did as she was told.  
  
Tenel Ka hurried down to the communication center. Her thoughts were twisted and confused.  
  
Jacen's light was as bright as ever.  
  
That meant only one thing.  
  
Jacen Solo was alive.  
  
TBC 


	2. Chapter 2

Stronger Together  
  
By Shlee Verde  
  
Part 2  
  
The clawcraft traveled through hyperspace. It was a Yuuzhan Vong ship. But there were no Vong on board.  
  
"What are you thinking of young Jacen?"  
  
Jacen looked at the strange feathered avian sitting next to him. "Our next step."  
  
"Still?"  
  
Jacen sighed in frustration. "Look it's kind of complicated, Vergere. I'm figuring that with Coruscant gone, the Republic bureaucracy will shift to Mon Calamari.  
  
"Naturally. But you don't wish to go there?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"That's what's complicated. The politician's are there, but I don't trust them. My friends are there, but."  
  
"You don't trust your friends?"  
  
Jacen sent her an exasperated look. "Of course I trust them. I'm just not ready to explain about what happened. Or about Ganner."  
  
"If you really trusted them, you trust them to believe you."  
  
"Its not that."  
  
"Then what is it?"  
  
"I DON"T KNOW!" Jacen shouted. "Sorry," he said more quietly. "It just doesn't feel right."  
  
The two sat for a moment in silence.  
  
Vergere finally spoke. "Perhaps it is because they do not have the means to keep the bureaucrats away? Perhaps it is because they will hear so much and hear so little? Perhaps it is because they will pass judgments they have no business making?"  
  
"My family won't. But the others might."  
  
Vergere nodded. "What you need, Jacen Solo is a friend that you can trust just to listen. To believe in you no matter what happens. You do have a friend like that I believe."  
  
"Tenel Ka," Jacen whispered. "But I don't know where she is. She probably thinks I'm dead."  
  
"She used to. But if you feel the Force, the Force feels you my friend."  
  
"You're saying that all my friends and family know I'm alive!"  
  
"Unless they are shielding from you. Or you are shielding from them.yes"  
  
Jacen said nothing. Vergere knew that he had never opened the bonds that he shared with his mother, aunt and uncle, and sister. Like he said, he wasn't ready for them to know anything yet. Besides, he feared what he would feel from his sister. And what Jaina would feel from him.  
  
He hadn't even realized that the bond with Tenel Ka had remained open. It was just something that had always been there, something constant in a galaxy full of chaos.  
  
But now he feared what Tenel Ka might be feeling from him.  
  
He was tempted to close their bond, that special unique link that they had shared for six and a half years. But he didn't. He couldn't hurt her that way. Except for the period that he had been 'dead' that bond had never been closed off.  
  
"Where would she be? The galaxy is a very large place."  
  
"Why not use your bond? It is strong, yes?"  
  
"Yes, it is. The strongest bond I have ever had with someone, besides Jaina and my mother. But it doesn't work that way. I can only get a general direction," he pointed, " and there is a lot of.stuff.that way. I can only pinpoint her if we are on the same planet."  
  
Vergere sighed, "Well think it through, young Solo. Where would the strike team go after Myrkr?"  
  
Jacen thought. "Well with Coruscant and Yavin 4 gone.Hapes. Tenel Ka could get them in easy. Besides it's close to Myrkr and Coruscant, if they went there first. They'd go to Hapes."  
  
Vergere cocked her head and gave him a look.  
  
Jacen laughed. "Tenel Ka doesn't stay on Hapes very long. She usually only stays long enough to visit with her parents and tell her grandmother off. Unless she has some sort of duty she can't get out of."  
  
"What if she did?"  
  
"What? What do you know that I don't?"  
  
"What makes you think that?"  
  
" 'Cause you always know something that I don't. Then you try to figure out ways to get me to figure out whatever it is you know, instead of just telling me like a normal sentient being."  
  
"That is true, I suppose," Vergere said light amusement evident in her voice. Then she sighed, "Do you know about the Ni Korish, Jacen?"  
  
"Yeah. Tenel explained them to me just after the war started. They were some sort of old Hapan Jedi haters. Many of them joined the Peace Brigade."  
  
"They, and Ta'a Chume, are responsible for the death of former Queen Mother Teneniel Djo."  
  
"Tenel's mom was murdered? By her grandmother?" Jacen knew that things had always been strained between the Dathomiri and the old woman, especially since that whole Centerpoint mess, but he had never suspected this.  
  
Vergere nodded.  
  
"And Tenel Ka's queen now?" Jacen shook his head. "She never wanted that."  
  
"She still doesn't," Vergere said. "But sometimes one must do what she must for the better of all. If Jedi Knight Chume Ta'a Djo had not taken this course Hapes would have been lost forever. It would have been corrupted by greed and blood lust for all time.  
  
"She did the right thing, Jacen Solo."  
  
Jacen nodded, then grew concerned. "So Hapes is still strong. Strong enough to be a threat to the Yuuzhan Vong?"  
  
"I expect so. Since the former queen ordered the rebuilding of the navy, the Hapan forces have grown to nearly as strong as the Republic forces. The Warmaster would definitely see that as threatening."  
  
"So he will attack?" Jacen suddenly felt sick.  
  
"Yes. Eventually."  
  
Jacen turned in his seat, and began to communicate with the ship, telling it what he wanted.  
  
"Jacen?"  
  
"We are going to Hapes, Vergere."  
  
"Surely the Queen Mother knows of the danger."  
  
"I'm sure she does. Tenel Ka is always prepared for things like that. I just want to be there. I have to be there. Besides, you said yourself I should talk to her."  
  
Vergere could not argue this point, so she just sat back in her seat and shrugged.  
  
She knew that, even if she wanted to, she would not be able to stop Jacen. He shared an unusually strong bond with the warrior woman; she had realized that from the moment she first saw them together on the worldship when they came to destroy the voxyn queen. However, she had yet to discover the depth to which this bond ran, but she was determined to do so.  
  
Only one thing Vergere knew for certain: the whole is greater than the individual parts.  
  
In other words, they were stronger together.  
  
TBC  
  
A/N: Please review, pretty please. I was trying to make Vergere come off as cryptic and annoying (well, she annoys me anyway), but I don't know how well that came off. Anyway, Destiny's Way comes out tomorrow. I'm so excited. I can't wait to get it. I am going in between classes to get it. I can't wait. Well, anyway review so I can update. Well, I'll probably update anyway, just review. - Verde :) 


End file.
